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Ofgem has announced shortlists of bidders competing to own and operate transmission links to the Galloper and Walney Extension windfarms off the coasts of Cumbria and Suffolk. The following bidders have been shortlisted:

Galloper

Walney Extension

Diamond Transmission Partners

Diamond Transmission Partners

Mari Energy Transmission

Mari Energy Transmission

Transmission Capital Partners

Transmission Capital Partners

Diamond Transmission Partners is a consortium of Mitsubishi Corporation and HICL Infrastructure Company Limited.

Mari Energy Transmission is a consortium of Macquarie Capital Group Limited and Frontier Power Limited.

Transmission Capital Partners is a consortium of International Public Partnerships Limited and Transmission Capital Partners Limited Partnership.

The bidders will now go through to the Invitation to Tender stage. Following that, Ofgem will appoint the preferred bidder for each link.

The two links are the final projects of the five to be tendered under the fifth round of the Offshore Transmission Owner (OFTO) regime. Under the regime, which was established by Ofgem and Government, bidders compete for the rights to own the links to the windfarms which lowers the costs of connecting offshore wind farms for consumers. The five projects under the OFTO regime are:

Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm, with a capacity of 402 MW, consisting of 67 Siemens 6MW wind turbines. It is located 32km off the coast of Cromer in North Norfolk and it is owned by affiliates of Statoil ASA, Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company PJSC (“Masdar”), and Statkraft AS.

Galloper Wind Farm comprises of 56 Siemens SWT-6.0-154 Wind Turbine Generators (WTGs), with a capacity of up to 340MW. It is located 27km off the east coast of England and is adjacent to the Greater Gabbard project. The onshore connection point is at Sizewell, near Leiston. The farm is equally owned by RWE, Siemens Financial Services, UK Green Investment Bank and Macquarie Capital, who each have a 25% share in the company.

Race Bank Offshore Wind Farm consists of 91 6.3MW turbines and an overall capacity of 565 MW. It is located in the North Sea, 27km north of Blakeney point off the coast of Norfolk, and 28kms east of Chapel St. Leonards off the coast of Lincolnshire. The transmission assets will connect at the Wapole 400kV substation near King’s Lynn. The farm is 100% indirectly owned by DONG Energy

Rampion Offshore Wind Farm consist of 116 Vestas 3.45MW turbines, with a maximum total generating capacity of 400.2MW. It is located approximately 13km off the south coast of England, near Sussex. The site covers an area of approximately 78km2 and is situated in water depths of 19-40m. The farm is jointly owned by EON (50.1%), Enbridge (24.9%) and Green Investment Bank (25%)

Walney Extension Offshore Wind Farm, contains two phases: WOW03 and WOW04. For the purposes of TR5, both phases will be treated as a single Qualifying Project and one licence will be awarded to an OFTO to operate the Walney Extension. It is located approximately 19km from shore in the Irish Sea and connects to Heysham and it is100% indirectly owned by DONG Energy.

The assets in the fifth round have an estimated value of £2 billion (US$2.6 billion) and will connect 2.3GW of generation capacity, making it the biggest tender round to date.

As we reported in October 2016, Ofgem announced the shortlists of bidders competing to own and operate the transmission links to the Dudgeon, Rampion and Race Bank wind farms off the coasts of Norfolk and Sussex (UK), totalling 1,375 MW. The following 6 bidders were shortlisted: Dudgeon (Statoil, Statkraft, Masdar), Balfour Beatty Investments, Equitix, Diamond Transmission Partners, Mari Energy Transmission and Transmission Capital Partners.